ay, and ditch outside the ramparts, it had
been allowed to fall into decay, and strenuous efforts were
needed to bring it into condition for defence.

Meanwhile, news of the coming danger had spread widely
throughout the Mohawk Valley, and everywhere the most lively
alarm prevailed. An Oneida Indian brought the news to the
fort, and from there it made its way rapidly through the
valley. Consternation was wide-spread. It was too late to
look for aid to a distance. The people were in too great a
panic to trust to themselves. That the rotten timbers of the
old fort could resist assault seemed very doubtful. If they
went down, and Brant with his Indians swept the valley, for
what horrors might they not look? It is not surprising
that, for the time, fear drove valor from almost every heart
in the imperilled region.

Up Lake Oneida came the enemy, now seventeen hundred strong,
St. Leger with his rangers having been joined by Johnson,
Butler, and Brant with their Tories and Indians. Every tribe
of the Iroquois had joined the invaders with the exception
of the Oneidas, who remained faithful to the colonists.

On the 2d of August, 1777, Brent with his savage followers
reached and invested the fort, the plumed and moccasined foe
suddenly breaking from the forest, and with their wild
war-whoops seeking to intimidate the beleaguered garrison.
On the next day came St. Leger with his whole force. On the
4th the siege commenced. Bombs were planted and threw their
shells into the fort; the Indians, concealed behind bushes
and trees, picked off with their arrows the men who were
diligently employed in strengthening the parapets; and
during the evening the savages, spreading through the woods,
sought, by frightful yells, to drive all courage from the
hearts of the defenders.

Meanwhile, aid was approaching. The valor of the patriots,
which fled at the first threat of danger, had returned. The
enemy was now almost at their doors; their helpless families
might soon be at the mercy of the ruthless savages; when
General Herkimer, a valiant veteran, called for recruits,
armed men flocked in numbers to his standard. He was
quickly at the head of more than eight hundred men. He sent
a messenger to the fort, telling Gansevoort of his approach,
and bidding him to discharge three signal-guns to show that
the tidings had reached him. His small army was called to a
halt within hearing of the guns of the fort, as he deemed it
the part of pr